We take our small triumphs where we can…

January 19, 2011

Point-the-first — I fixed the food processor bowl, from which a piece of the plastic rim had broken, doing away with the necessity of ordering a new plastic bowl for the FoPro, which would have probably cost as much as the original FoPro itself. Super Glue is a wonderful thing.

Point-the-second — the plumber is coming to fix the drain tomorrow afternoon, a mere 48 hours after I first called to report the problem. No, wait. That’s 72 hours. No matter. It’s still quicker than last time. Disposal’s not clogged as badly as last time, either.

Point the third — I’ve made calzone again. It looked like the one before it, so I’m not posting a pic again.

This one differs from the one last week or week before or whenever it was because I put sauce on it, at the request of Child C and NS. OK, it was Ragu. Sue me. They like it, and I’m probably going to eat one wedge of it tonight and be done, so why not make life easy on myself? I put a lot less parsley, and used beef summer sausage instead of pepperoni, because, well, I had it.

It smelled heavenly, baking. The whole house smells wonderful, in fact. I’m thinking pizza dough is going to be a once-a-week adventure here; I can make one with sauce and pepperoni and such for NS, and one with cool stuff for me. Like caramelized onion and goat cheese and fresh Roma tomatos.

Child C informed me she had taken the pastitsio to work for lunch and it was amazing. I don’t often get “amazing” as a modifier in food descriptions from her.

What else have I accomplished today? I got a stroller shipped to child B, which is something I Should Not Have Had to do except either Amazon’s website is screwy or I am incompetent, or potentially both. I ordered the damn thing because I could get it for 20 bucks less than Babies R Us price, plus no sales tax, plus free shipping directly to her in Nashville. Except somehow, Amazon defaulted to the delivery address on the account, which is mine. So it got here yesterday, whereupon I slapped another label on it and shipped it out today to her in Nashvegas, which, by the time I pay for that shipping when the bill comes in at work, will probably cost me what it would have originally cost at Babies R Us. Sigh. Go figger. What’s a grandmother for, anyway?

Elsewhere: Forgettable food yesterday. Lunch meeting with boxed lunches — I picked chicken salad, wished I hadn’t. I’d have preferred to have the sliced turkey with about NINE FREAKING POUNDS of sliced, processed turkey breast on wheat bread; you can at least do away with the limp lettuce and tasteless tomato, add enough mustard to be able to taste it, and do OK. Last night I had two, count them, two, legislative receptions. Usual reception-type snacks, as well as a large tray of candied bacon, which would have been pretty good if (a) it hadn’t had a metric assload of congealed fat settled on it,a nd (b) it hadn’t had a huge overdose of some spice — I think cloves. It was so overpowering I couldn’t even figure out what it was.

After that, the boss and I went out and grabbed a salad at Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro in the Rock. I had a caprese, which differed from the traditional caprese in that it was served on a bed of baby spinach (no basil? Huh?), had slices of grilled chicken on it, and had walnuts. H’mm. Still good, if not a traditional caprese.

Damn, I wish it was summer. I can TASTE a good caprese with basil off the deck and tomatos from the farmer’s market….

Tomorrow night is banquet food. Ick. I should probably pre-eat. I’m thinking Friday I may fix myself the sweet potato ravioli that’s been languishing in the freezer, and something else for NS. Saturday or Sunday one is short ribs. The other weekend day will, I believe, be a pot of white beans and ham. Just because.

With that, I believe I’ll watch Arkansas and SC, and read a little. You and y’mama ‘n ’em stay warm tonight.